Sunday, 13 August 2017

Harrington Ringing

HelloA ringing session at Harrington Airfield this morning was eventful with 70 captures which included 14 birds ringed previously.The first capture of the day was a fabulous Tawny Owl extracted from a mist net at dawn. This was a bird hatched this year but seemingly now independent. Another early bird was a juvenile male Sparrowhawk which again has probably only just left parental responsibility behind. Other larger birds came in the form of two juvenile Green Woodpeckers and also two Blackbirds and a Song Thrush.Other birds included 17 Willow Warblers suggesting a small 'fall' of these migrants, 11 Yellowhammers (nearly all juveniles), 2 Robins, 5 Chaffinches, 9 Whitethroats, 5 Linnets, 2 Reed Buntings, a Garden Warbler, 3 Dunnocks, 3 Greenfinches and 3 Blue Tits. Choice passerines however were a female Redstart already bearing a ring and a migrant Tree Pipit. A quick turnaround on the ring details of the Redstart indicates that it was ringed as a nestling at Ripon in Yorkshire in June, some 150 miles to the north.Other birds noted on-site included a couple of juvenile Grey Partridges, a vocal Nuthatch or two and a fly-over Tree Pipit at 10.15am may have been the same bird which perhaps u-turned and was subsequently found in a mist net.Away from Harrington there were two Redstarts at Blueberry Farm this evening and Pitsford Reservoir hosted two Great White Egrets, six Black-tailed Godwits, a Greenshank, a Common Snipe and three Green Sandpipers.RegardsNeil M